The NCAA News - News & Features

Women's basketball attendance tops five-million mark

BY RICHARD M. CAMPBELL
NCAA STATISTICS COORDINATOR

NCAA women's basketball attendance continued to eclipse records as 1996 national home attendance surpassed the five-million mark for the first time in history.

The total of 5,233,954 for all NCAA varsity teams, excluding double-headers with men's teams, represents a net increase of 272,008 over the 1995 total. The figures include all 874 NCAA institutions with varsity teams -- 296 of them Division I members.

The five-million-plus spectators who watched NCAA women play in 1996 was an increase of 5.5 percent over the 1995 figure. This was the 15th consecutive year (every year in which the survey has been conducted) that attendance reached an all-time high.

NCAA national women's attendance has almost tripled since 1982, when attendance records began. Per-game attendance has increased at a similar rate, from 281 per game in 1982 to 703 last season.

NCAA Division I attendance provided much of this growth by more than tripling its 1982 total of 1.15 million to 4.16 million in 1996.

Division I net attendance (including the NCAA tournament and games at neutral sites) was up 193,350, while Division I per-game attendance was up 44 to 1,285 per outing, also a record.

In Division I home attendance only, the 296 teams set marks for net attendance at 3,760,940 and 1,223 per game.

Other highlights from the 1995-96 season are home attendance in Division III and NCAA tournament attendance in Divisions II and III. Division III set an all-time record of 502,434 in total home attendance.

Division II tournament attendance hit an all-time record of 49,344 and the Division III tournament did likewise with attendance of 46,140.

Big Ten again

The Big Ten Conference took the Division I prize for the fourth consecutive year and, in the process, set records for both net and per-game attendance.

With Wisconsin (fourth among Division I schools), Penn State (sixth), Purdue (eighth) and Iowa (10th) all finishing in the top 10 in team rankings, the Big Ten posted a record attendance of 516,806 and a record average of 3,639 spectators per game. The net total eclipsed the old mark by almost 90,000.

Including Ohio State, which finished 12th nationally, all of the top five Big Ten teams averaged more than 5,000 per game.

Four conferences averaged 2,000 or more spectators per game: the Southwest Conference (2,883), Southeastern Conference (2,630), Pacific-10 Conference (2,359) and the Big Ten.

In the other divisions, the North Central Intercollegiate Conference -- which averaged 1,407 fans per game -- led Division II for the sixth consecutive year. In Division III, the Ohio Athletic Conference (at 330) topped all leagues for the third straight season.

Connecticut breaks through

Connecticut finished as the Division I leader in national home attendance for the first time with a 8,183 average, while Tennessee, which won the Division I Women's Basketball Championship, was second at 8,042.

Texas Tech was third with 7,932 fans, followed by fourth-place Wisconsin (7,884) and fifth-place Texas (7,495) -- the 11th straight top-five finish for the Longhorns (see the accompanying ranking of teams).

The top per-game improvements among Division I teams were by New Mexico (up 3,104), Penn State (up 3,017) and Wisconsin (up 2,940).

In all-games attendance (including home, road and neutral sites), Tennessee led Division I with 263,557 spectators.

In Division II, North Dakota State won its fifth consecutive attendance crown, averaging 3,707 per game. Abilene Christian was second at 1,422, followed by Pittsburg State at 1,350.

In Division III, Defiance won its first attendance title, averaging 878 per game. Howard Payne was second at 820, followed by Maryville (Tennessee) at 682.